Officials are probing how a 51-year-old highway bridge came to collapse in the Italian port city of Genoa yesterday, killing at least 26 people and injuring 16 others as it sent dozens of vehicles tumbling into a heap of concrete and twisted steel.

Asylum seekers nominated for bravery award

Three asylum seekers from Myanmar (Burma), who drowned while trying to paddle from their stricken boat to Christmas Island in a bid to save other passengers, have been posthumously nominated for an Australian Bravery Award.

A fourth person - the vessel's Indonesian captain - also took part in the mercy dash some eight weeks ago.

He made it to shore after a week at sea, but was immediately detained, the island's administrator Jon Stanhope said.

When the boat's engines stalled about 12 nautical miles from the island, the men were concerned about the welfare of the passengers including a pregnant woman, so they jumped overboard on a makeshift raft made of inflated tyres and bamboo, and tried to paddle to land.

The same day that they set out, the boat was found and its passengers were rescued.

Mr Stanhope, the former chief minister of the ACT, said he had nominated all four of the men for a bravery award, regardless of whether they were eligible.

He believed the men - whose names he was trying to find out - deserved to be honoured.

"They couldn't even see the island, but they knew which direction it was in ... and the Burmese probably couldn't swim," Mr Stanhope told AAP.

"I have heard anecdotally that there was a pregnant woman on board that they were particularly concerned about, and she needed assistance but the boat was drifting."

It took incredible courage to jump into the ocean with no land in sight, he said.

"I just cannot imagine the bravery inherent in that act.

"The attempt was genuinely designed to bring aid to those on board.

"Had it been anybody other than asylum seekers, there would have been an automatic response (to honour the men) and as it is, we don't even know their names."

Meanwhile, seven of the 66 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who sailed into the busy West Australian port of Geraldton last week after spending weeks at sea remain in Perth after being deemed unfit to travel.

An immigration department spokeswoman said the other 59 had been transferred to Christmas Island.

Detention facilities on Christmas Island are overcrowded, so some asylum seekers are being forced to live in tents.

Australian Lawyers Alliance national president Tony Kerin said the way these recent arrivals were being treated was distressing.

"These people have been through a huge ordeal just to reach our shores," Mr Kerin said.

"To then put these people on a plane for Christmas Island, which is already overcrowded, is only exacerbating their ordeal and is totally unnecessary.